Camera:
Julia Browning

Ant traps!

These pottery ant traps were made by many potteries in the early 1900s. The four legs of a table or food safe were stood in the centre, water was poured into the outer compartment, stopping the ants from getting onto the table or into the food safe. Sometimes jam tins were used as a substitute, but the water rotted the ends of the legs. This in time lowered the height of the table. A number of the ant traps are on display in our National Museum of Australian Pottery.